The future of UK offshore wind power
How do we optimise future investment decisions for offshore wind under climate change?
Low carbon energy
Developing sustainable energy policy and technologies is crucial to providing a safe, reliable and low-cost energy supply for a growing global population. We innovate in every part of the energy system, from generation and storage, to regulation and end-user demand.
What we do and why we have impact
We offer world leading research and training across the low carbon energy sector.
- InnovationWe produce innovative solutions for providing new forms of energy generation, such as diamond batteries and state-of-the art solar technologies.
- Industrial engagementWe work with a wide range of industrial partners in the low carbon energy sector, leading major collaborative programmes such as the South West Nuclear Hub and the Wind Blade Research Hub.
- International developmentWe collaborate with nations across the globe to develop sustainable energy technologies for some of the world's poorest communities.
Current energy research projects
Implementing low-cost and low-carbon distributed IoT sensors in farming
How can we use sensors for crop health monitoring, optimised fertiliser deployment, early intervention, and environmental management in a low-cost, low-carbon way?
Decentralised urban energy access
Understanding the decentralised energy paradigm in urban Africa, through case studies in Uganda and The Gambia.
Another Chernobyl?
Implementing a low-cost environmental and aerosol monitoring provision inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for seasonal and wild-fire event monitoring and risk management.
Re-evaluating Chernobyl
Improving our knowledge and understanding of the global radiological hazard associated with the world’s worst nuclear accident through an enhanced monitoring provision.
Wind Blade Research Hub
Adaptive structures present a novel solution for wind energy production.
Designing offshore renewable energy systems
How can we use innovative design to rethink our energy systems?
Resolving the energy trilemma
How do we redress the balance between energy security, environmental sustainability and social impact?
Getting water, sanitation and energy to marginalised communities
As urban populations continue to expand worldwide, enabling universal access to vital services becomes an ever-more pressing challenge.
Exploring peer-to-peer ‘free trade’ in excess energy
Households and businesses that generate their own power through micro-renewables, such as solar panels and wind turbines, may soon be able to decide where to distribute their extra energy using ‘sharing platform’ technology.
Locally manufactured hydropower
Improving the reliability of micro-hydropower in Nepal through changes to design, manufacture and project implementation
Riding sunbeams
Riding Sunbeams seeks to connect solar PV directly into the UK’s electrified rail network to power trains. Direct supply of solar power traction to railway systems has never been done before, neither in the UK nor anywhere else in the world. Its potential to decarbonize railways is huge.
Nuclear plant life extension to meet UK electricity demand
Testing the structural behaviour of nuclear reactor cores in the case of a seismic event.
‘Diamond-age’ of power generation as nuclear batteries developed
New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery.
Renewable energy microgrids
Designing a methodology and a micro-grid system that could help redress energy imbalances across the world.
Aviation, the pandemic and carbon emissions
What will be the role of the aviation sector in a 'green recovery' and how has the pandemic changed this?
Sensor-driven electronics could provide lasting power for less
How can we reduce the power drain when technology is left on standby?
Humanitarian energy access
Investigating the market-based delivery of solar home systems in Rwanda refugee camps.
Solar technologies
We specialise in Photovoltaic Technology based on Earth Abundant Materials (PVTEAM) & Energy and the physical sciences: Beta-enhanced thermionic energy converters and nuclear batteries employing nanostructured diamond electrodes.
Consolidating global knowledge on hazardous Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant particulate
What can be done to better understand nuclear fall-out and associated risk? And how can this information be used to repopulate affected areas?